Caraval by Stephanie Garber ● Young Adult, Fantasy
Audiobook ● Read by Rebecca Soler ● 10 hours and 24 minutes
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I freaking loved this. L O V E D I T. Still love it, actually, so that shouldn’t be past tense. This book is as devourable as a freshly baked chocolate cupcake. Although I do wish that we got more details and spent more time actually exploring Caraval and understanding all of its magic and craziness, it was an amazing setting for the story. It could be comparable to Diagon Alley, you never know! Also, even though the cover literally says “Remember, it’s only a game”, I totally forgot all about it being a game and was sucked into everything to the point that I was so confused and saw none of what happened coming, which was WONDERFUL. I love being surprised! I enjoyed that the conception of Caraval kept changing. Is it a good place to be, a fun place to be, a really freaking terrible place to me? This happened with the characters too! HMMM. I also loved that I was kept guessing about everything happening, and even when I thought I had finally figured it out, I totally didn’t have it figured out and BOOM, craziness ensued and things were turned upside down. Also – THE ENDING. What the WHAT. Bring it on, book number two.
Frostblood by Elly Blake ● Young Adult, Fantasy
Audiobook ●Read by Jennifer English ● 10 hours and 44 minutes
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Overall, I was not very interested or invested in this book. There isn’t anything that this book blatantly did wrong to make me not enjoy it, as a whole it was just… overdone? Frostblood did not offer anything new that isn’t already available and happening in YA fantasy novels. From start to finish, things were predictable and therefore boring for me. There was no one-of-a-kind hook, setting, character, detail, etc. to keep me interested and set this apart. I also did not enjoy Ruby as a character, I found her quite annoying. This next thing is so minor and I’m going to feel like a fool as soon as I write it, but I’ll do it anyways for the sake of getting it out of my head. The title of this book bothered me! This is a story focused on Ruby, who is NOT a frostblood! Sure, frostblood in general has quite a bit to do with the story, but the title just didn’t work for me.
Did you read Caraval or Frostblood? Tell me your thoughts!
No Time for Tiny Bookshelves 